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FBI chief: Drugs fuel crime

EL PASO -- Top U.S. law enforcement officials on Monday described drug cartels that are increasingly mobile, tech savvy, diverse and transnational, factors that are challenging efforts to curb border violence fueled by big profits.
Modern organized crime organizations are "borderless," said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who added that the FBI is "deeply concerned about high levels of drug trafficking, human smuggling and gang activity," as well as with the surge in violent crimes linked to the drug trade such as homicides, kidnappings and extortion.
Mueller was among the featured speakers at the two-day Border Security Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, which continues Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the conference host, said this year's themes are border protection and effective commerce.
Mueller said much of the increased violence in Juárez that has claimed hundreds of lives this year is related to two groups fighting over the corridor drug dealers use to introduce cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines into the U.S.
The main factions vying for control of the Juárez-El Paso corridor are led by Carrillo Fuentes and Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman Loera.
U.S. law enforcement have detected Mexican drug cartels in nearly 200 U.S. cities and practically every state. According
to a United Nations report released last year, the Juárez cartel has a presence in more than 35 countries. Mueller also said the Barrio Azteca gang, which has ties to the Juárez drug cartels, represent the most significant gang threat in the region. But, "we have indicted 16 (gang) leaders and expect more arrests," Mueller said.
Michael J. Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Susan Lane, director of the Office of Intelligence/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Anthony Placido, assistant administrator and intelligence chief for the Drug Enforcement Administration, also addressed the gathering that attracted defense vendors, security specialists, academics and others.
Placido said the global drug trade is a $323 billion business, and it is estimated that the U.S. accounts for $63 billion of that amount.
"To put it in perspective, nine out of 10 countries have annual budgets that are less than this," he said. "The violence associated with drugs is legendary, brutal and it is driven by greed."
Placido said that there is also evidence that drug profits are being used to fund terrorism and that even counterfeit cigarette smuggling has been used for that purpose.
Criminal organizations "are not only poly-drug, but also poly-crime and trans-national," he added.
Sullivan said 90 percent of all illegal weapons seized in Mexico are from the United States, mostly from the four Southwestern states. "Two-thirds of them were traced back to Texas," he said.
Mexico considers the illegal arms trade its No. 1 national security threat.
Security experts also said organized crime groups are using computers and other technologies to further their illicit enterprises.
Manuel Suarez-Mier, legal attaché for the Mexico's Office of the Attorney General, said it's important to hit drug dealers where it hurts, "in their profits ... money laundering."
Despite what may seem like a formidable battle, some officials noted that Mexico's crackdown on the cartels, which also has resulted in the deaths of numerous police and innocent people, has slowed the flow of drugs into the United States and has increased the drugs' cost on the retail market.
The conference Tuesday will include experts from the U.S. Northern Command, the National Research Center for Border Security and Immigration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, among others.
Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.